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Capturing your own footage can be an affordable way to help Next Play Productions make your recruitment video. Baseball, Basketball, Football, Soccer, Softball, Volleyball, and Other Sports all have their own specific video guidelines, however, there are a few basics you should know before you start filming.
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There are several common formats in which to shoot video. Below, we have given a summary of each. although we will accept nearly any format, we recommend miniDV and unencrypted DVD for quality and ease of use. Take a look at our summary and if you have a format that isn't addressed, feel free to contact us with questions.
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Most people don’t know what’s digital and what isn’t, so don’t feel bad. There are so many tiny camcorders out there now, who could? Of course, Next Play Productions will accept any format, but a transfer fee may apply. For a visual on what’s digital and what’s not, see pictures/explanation following idea #10.
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A shaky camera makes terrible footage.
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Editing capabilities can do more with downloaded footage than the camera can when filming. Zooming and panning (following the player, ball, etc) can give people a headache anyway. Instead, keep a wide, steady view as much as possible.
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Take a checklist, think about angles/positioning, and go early to make sure there are no obstacles in the way of what you planned.
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Try to keep the subject well-lit and avoid shadows when possible.
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Practice using the camcorder and tripod and rehearse what you want to do.
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Remember to turn your camcorder to the off position when you are setting up for the next sequence as a camcorder eats through a battery life quickly. Carry an extra battery if you have one. Avoid rewinding, this eats the battery and footage can easily be deleted in the editing room.
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Although “noise” can easily be edited out, it may interfere with the natural sounds of sports actions and competitions, which can be valuable. It’s difficult to edit out the videographer’s spilled coffee story to capture the “tink” of the bat on a homerun hit.
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Bring a clipboard and write special moments and plays to submit with the tapes. They help.
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When appropriate-see sport-specific guidelines for details. An elevated view may help you to get more players and action in the viewfinder. This is important in sports like soccer, where it’s not only important to see the athlete with the ball, but where the ball goes when it is kicked, and how the player moves without the ball.
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| VHS Tape. Analog. Poor quality, not a long shelf life. This was the coaches format choice of the past...NOT today. However, if the best footage you have is only available on VHS, we can certainly take that and incorporate it into your Next Play Production.
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| There are camcorders now that record directly onto DVD. This is a convenient format. If you have shot video directly to DVD, we have special software that can pull footage directly into our video editing software from disc.
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| 8 millimeter/Hi-8 tapes. Analog or digital, depending on the camera you use to the capture footage. 8mm/Hi-8 cameras record analog...digital-8 cameras record digitally on the same tapes. Hi-8 is not recommended.
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| miniDV camcorders. These small “cassette-like” tapes are digital. They are currently the smallest with the best quality, and the tapes can be reused over and over. This is a recommended format
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